Marjane Satrapi quotes

Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism. (Marjane Satrapi)
Life is too short to be lived badly.
Marjane Satrapi
It is dangerous when you start calling people from one part of the world terrorists or fanatic, and you reduce them to some abstract notion. If evil has a geographical place, and if the evil has a name, that is the beginning of fascism. Real life is not this way. You have fanatics and narrow-minded people everywhere.
Marjane Satrapi
I think animation is like running a marathon, and making a movie is like a 100 meter sprint. The question is: are you a marathon man or are you a sprinter? I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily.
Marjane Satrapi
Life is complex. You don't have any person who is nice from the beginning until the end. You don't always have the notion of redemption. The bad people don't always pay.
Marjane Satrapi
Teacher: What do you want to be when you grow up? Marji: I'll be a prophet.
Marjane Satrapi
The words are not the same and the feeling is not the same. You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman. She is either beautiful or faithful. So it's better when she's beautiful because when she's too faithful it might be very ugly. This is French people. This translation, though, is very well made. This is my American editor, who knows me very well who has made the translation. But in any translation you lose a little bit.
Marjane Satrapi
One can forgive but one should never forget.
Marjane Satrapi
It's fear that makes us lose our conscience. It's also what transforms us into cowards.
Marjane Satrapi
We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it.
Marjane Satrapi
Nothing's worse than saying goodbye. It's a little like dying. (Marjane Satrapi)
When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.
Marjane Satrapi
I had learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor.
Marjane Satrapi
You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman: she is either beautiful or faithful.
Marjane Satrapi
Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself.
Marjane Satrapi
In every religion, you find the same extremists.
Marjane Satrapi
Anyway, that's how it is! Either they obey the law, or they're expelled!! And make sure they wear their veils correctly..." - "If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your moustache!" My father actually said that.
Marjane Satrapi
I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the West. I had no identity. I didn't even know anymore why I was living.
Marjane Satrapi
Human beings have a lot of problems identifying themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
Marjane Satrapi
A Muslim fanatic and a Christian fanatic, a Jewish fanatic, a secular fanatic, an atheist fanatic, a communist fanatic - all of them are the same. The thinking that, 'If you don't think like me, that if you are not with me, then you are against me;' this is something to condemn.
Marjane Satrapi
If you have a little sensibility or a heart, you have all the reason to be depressed once in a while. But the depression is like a motor for creation. I need a little bit of depression, a bit of acid in my stomach, to be able to create. When I'm happy, I just want to dance. (Marjane Satrapi)
The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.
Marjane Satrapi
All big changes of the world come from words.
Marjane Satrapi
My culture comes from everywhere. I'm sick of this notion of nationality, that if you're brought up in the same city or same country you're the same. Even three kids brought up in the same family with the same genes, they are not the same. Just consider a human a human.
Marjane Satrapi
My mother always told me I had to do 100 times better than a man. I had to work hard at maths, and learn four languages.
Marjane Satrapi